$235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!

Oddball

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
I lost one of my truck keys about 2 weeks ago and searched everywhere multiple times. I knew it had to be at the house somewhere because I drove the truck home. I've been using the spare key since. I'm paranoid about only having one key for the truck, so I stopped by Ford yesterday to order a new key and remote. I figured it would be a rip off of around $50. They said it would be $235!! I said "no thanks, I'll just go by the hardware store and have a spare key made from the one I'm using." The guy said "Nope, can't do it. That's why they're so expensive. There's a chip in the plastic part of the key that is needed to activate the ignition." I said "Geez, I knew some keys had that, but I thought it was part of a special package, I didn't realize it was a standard thing." He said "No, its standard now." What a rip off!! I decided to make do with just one key. When I got home, I decided to have one more look around inside the truck and what do you know, I found the missing key right away. :mad: After weeks of searching the house and multiple times going through the truck top to bottom, it was right there in the arm rest console with a bunch of junk that's accumulated in there. I guess its time to clean out the console. I guess I'm glad too that the replacement is so expensive, or I'd have bitten the bullet and ordered a new one.
 

KennyV

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
See... All you needed was a $235 incentive to look better.... :smile:KennyV
 

jmurray01

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
I remember about 2 years ago we lost the key for our car in winter.

The car got stuck in the snow, so I got out to dig it out, and took the ignition key with me so I could open the boot (trunk) to get the shovel out (it is one of those trunks that you need to put the key in to open), so I got the shovel out and dug the wheels out, then when I put my hand in my pocket to get the key, I couldn't find it! :eek:

Luckily we were just down the road from the house, so I walked back and got the spare, but the "master key" (the red one) was missing, which is worrying, because the master key is the only one you can use to get a duplicate, and I only had one black spare key.

Anyway, we put a note up in the local post office saying a red car key had been lost, and luckily the next day somebody found it and we got it back. Phew!

Anyway, the moral of my story is, if we hadn't got the original back, it would have cost about the same to get another key, and get the locks & ignition reprogrammed.

Thank goodness we both found our keys! :thumbsup:
 

JDgreen

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
I know just what you mean, ripoff city big time. Those fancy keys are just another way for the dealers to cheat customers.
 

Two-Stroke

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
The larger issue here is that certain consumer items (in this case cars and light trucks) are getting increasingly complex and the consumer usually doesn't have an option to opt out of all this complex stuff (which also adds greatly to the cost.)

This trend can also be seen in mowers. When I compare a 1970s-era Lawn-Boy to anything built today, the new mower looks: (a) heavier -- by a lot; and (b) much more complex mechanically -- which makes it more likely to be uneconomical to fix at an early age and end up in a landfill.

Some of this trend is driven by regulatory pressure -- the government mandates that the product MUST have certain features, which makes the product more expensive, more complex, heavier, and more difficult to maintain.
 

JDgreen

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
The larger issue here is that certain consumer items (in this case cars and light trucks) are getting increasingly complex and the consumer usually doesn't have an option to opt out of all this complex stuff (which also adds greatly to the cost.)

This trend can also be seen in mowers. When I compare a 1970s-era Lawn-Boy to anything built today, the new mower looks: (a) heavier -- by a lot; and (b) much more complex mechanically -- which makes it more likely to be uneconomical to fix at an early age and end up in a landfill.

Some of this trend is driven by regulatory pressure -- the government mandates that the product MUST have certain features, which makes the product more expensive, more complex, heavier, and more difficult to maintain.

My old-folks cars, Buick Lesabre and Saturn L 300, both have those fancy expensive key fobs and remotes, Theft protection, they tell me. Like somebody would want to steal one of those fuddy duddy mobiles.
 

Oddball

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
As long as we're on the subject of car keys, I'll relate a funny story that happened to me many years ago. If I still didn't get a laugh ouf of it it would be embarassing, but if you can't laugh at yourself...

Back when my wife and I were dating in the late 1980's I had a 1968 Chevy Chevelle. The '68 models had the ignition on the dash instead of the steering column, and you could pull the key out while the ignition was on and the engine running. This thing actually had enough torque that if I romped on it really hard from a dead stop, the acceleration would pull the key right out of the switch. Anyway, my wife lived on the other side of town about 45 minutes away. I got ready after work one Friday to go over to meet her and go out for the evening and locked the door to the house and started the car and was about to back out of the driveway when I realized I'd left something in the house. I just pulled the keys out of the ignition with the engine running, went back and unlocked the door, went into the house and got what I was after, then got back in the car and drove to my wife's house. When I got there I went to turn off the car and the keys weren't there. I then got out of the car, checked all my pockets and didn't have the key. I looked all over the floorboard and they weren't there either, then I sheepishly knocked on her door and said I was going to have to drive home and get my keys, that I'd apparently left them at the house, and couldn't shut the car off. She laughed for a while and then said she'd ride with me. We drove all the way back across town to my house only to discover the keys were not hanging in the door knob and the house was locked up. I had to break a window in the back door to break in to my own house. We searched all over and could not find my keys. She asked for the third or fourth time if I was sure the keys weren't in my pockets and as I was saying "Yes, I'm sure, that's the first place I checked." I was running my hands around my pockets again. Only this time I felt a bulge in my back pocket, where I NEVER put my keys and there they were. Talk about feeling like a moron. Boy I did that night, but by the time we got back over to her house we were laughing about it. She then proceeded to tell her sister, whom she lived with, what had happened and it became quite the family joke for a number of years.
 

JDgreen

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
LOL reminds me of the time I was with a buddy he had just purchased a new Road Runner this was back in '69 or so rite after they moved ignition lock to steering column well we were out tearing around I was riding shotgun he asked me to get bottle of rum out of glove compartment well it was locked he said heres the keys he kicked in clutch and shut off engine and gave me keys he was so new to steering column lock he didn't really realize taking keys out would lock steering wheel I was trying to find key for glove box and he screamed "GIMME THOSE BACK" becuz a corner was coming up....:laughing::laughing:
 

Oddball

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
"GIMME THOSE BACK"

Talk about an Oh Crap moment! :laughing: That's a lesson it only takes once to learn. I've always hated steering locks.
 

BKBrown

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  • / $235 for a new car key and remote entry key fob!! What a rip off!
Did he ever hear of BRAKES ? :eek:
 
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